Galavant

Welcome to the New Year! There are so many Winter 2015 series about to start. The first is Galavant. That’s what I’m watching, although many will be excited about Downton Abbey which I have yet to start.

Galavant is coproduced by Dan Fogelman, Alan Menken and Glenn Slater among others – all immensely talented and heavily entrenched in Disneyworld. The show is a live action 8 half hour episode Disney musical set to snarky medieval fare. Menken of course wrote many of the most famous American musicals and songs like Newsies, The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, and Little Shop of Horrors and his music is sure to be catchy and please. Glenn Slater, lyricist, has done Broadway shows like Sister Act (and now the upcoming School of Rock) and worked with Menken on the Disney movie Tangled. It’s significant and marvelous that the musicians are producing. The showrunner-writer-creator scheme has created some of the best work we’ve seen on television, and when the musicians are running a musical show it will undoubtedly help ease the difficult transitions between mediums.

The music is sparing – very smart. Arrangements are orchestral and the mix highlights the few people singing really nicely. The snarky tone of the dialogue gives the show it’s best asset and Menken’s music really never disappoints.

ABC is airing four weeks of two episodes back to back – a tactic NBC will mirror with Parks & Rec – so the show is a quarter of the way in and has already introduced John Stamos, so that’s good too. Galavant is a nice watch for a lazy Sunday.

After that the night continues with new episodes of The Good Wife (boy I hope Cary comes out alright!) and Revenge.